Numlock News: October 15, 2026 • Troy, Oyster, Advent

Oct 15, 2026

By Walt Hickey

Fake Blood

DARPA, the advanced research wing of the Pentagon, has put $73 million behind the RAPIID program, which is attempting to produce shelf-stable versions of three major blood transfusion constituents: plasma, platelets and red blood cells. This project picks up where a previous effort, the $47.5 million FSHARP project, left off, with promising results demonstrated in animals. The military utility of ready-to-access blood substitutes is clear; 90 percent of preventable battlefield deaths are due to hemorrhage. The logistics of getting a transfusion going very quickly is of paramount concern, with a JAMA study finding that a person is almost guaranteed to survive a survivable hemorrhage if they get blood within 36 minutes. In the broader U.S. population, there are probably about 10,000 preventable deaths annually. There’s just not enough blood, and it’s not shelf-stable enough to jam into every ambulance; whole blood only lasts 35 days when refrigerated and platelets last a week or less, so a shelf-stable version of those constituent parts could hypothetically serve as a critical bridge treatment before the hospital.

Andrew Rosenblum, MIT Technology Review

Thorny Oyster

Spondylus gaederopua, or the thorny oyster, was once all over the cuisine of Italy, a fact that we now know because it’s been spotted by researchers across dozens of paintings. The oyster was identified in 43 paintings from 1635 to 1750, mostly by members of the Neapolitan Recco family. The paintings confirm oral testimonies and some historical documents that the thorny oyster was culinarily significant in Italy and that over time, the average shell size decreased, which would be consistent with harvesting pressure.

Louise Merquiol, Anne-Sophie Tribot, Daniel Faget, Thomas Changeux, PLOS One

Sneaker

New data from market research firm EDITED indicates that we are in the twilight of the dominion of the sneaker, as other shoe styles begin to supplant sports footwear in day-to-day usage. Sneakers have been on a tear lately — they rose from 37 percent of the global market in 2012 to 50 percent in 2024 — but other more traditional shoes appear to be making a slight comeback. Compared to the same period a year ago, the proportion of men’s sneakers selling out in a majority of sizes is down 18 percent over the summer, and among men’s chunky sneakers, it’s down 46 percent. It appears that loafers are the big winner of the sneaker retreat, with loafer sellout rates up 49 percent over the same period.

Andrea Felsted, Bloomberg

O Come All Ye Faithful

New data from toy wholesaler Faire found that orders for advent calendars are up 63 percent year over year, as the midcentury German Christmas tradition has spread like wildfire among a generation raised on loot boxes. Indeed, the nature of the advent calendar is adapting, with the classic chocolate and candy daily treat actually taking a 23 percent year-over-year dip as advent calendars containing toys absolutely explode in popularity.

Toy Book

Brewers

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission is investigating the four major brewers in the country — Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory — amid price-fixing allegations. Still, there’s an argument to be made that if anything, the issue is the companies not making the collaboration above-board and official by simply merging, as the Japanese beer industry is serving a shrinking domestic consumer base (down 40 percent from the mid-90s peak) while the rest of the global beer industry has consolidated. While the four companies control 90 percent of Japan’s domestic beer industry, they’ve got only 20 percent of the production of AB InBev, and combined account for only 5.3 percent of global market share, or roughly the size of Carlsberg.

Gearoid Reidy, Bloomberg

Grand Theft Auto VI

In order to produce what’s expected to be the biggest video game in years, Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar had to grow from 2,441 employees in 2018 to 4,711 as of August 2026. Analysts expect the game to sell 40 million copies on console and generate $3 billion in revenue in its first four months alone. The online component is expected to be released in 2027, and the current online GTA makes something like half a billion dollars annually.

Jason Schreier, Bloomberg

Shipwreck

Archaeologists have dated a shipwreck discovered off the coast of Turkey to between 4,400 and 4,700 years old, which would make it the oldest ever discovered. The wooden structure of the vessel has not survived, but ceramic storage pots held as cargo remained on the seafloor, some still containing traces of ancient wheat. The ship was probably 10 meters in length and was found on the seafloor 30 meters underwater off the coast of Kekova Island. The archaeologists contend that the ship began its voyage on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and was likely bound for either Crete or Troy.

Alison Francis, Rebecca Morelle and Kevin Church, BBC News

Thank you to Numlock’s paid subscribers, whose support guarantees this stays ad-free. If you pay to subscribe, you get a Sunday edition! Subscribing is the single best way to support a thing you like to read:

Numlock News is written each day by Walt Hickey. Email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Every post is entirely by a human; send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news. If you enjoy Numlock, tell a friend, word of mouth is the only way that independent publications like this one grow.

Check out my book, You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything, and subscribe to the Numlock Awards newsletter.

Previous Sunday subscriber editions: Garbage Fire · Fanfic · Young Money · Crumbling Facades · The Adventure Zone · Outdoor Cats · Imported Beer · Auteurs · Overflowing Cups ·